4/18/2019

ATTORNEY GENERAL/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For 21 minutes on Thursday [4-18-19] morning, with the nation watching, President Trump had the loyal attorney general he had always longed for. Reading a prepared statement and then answering questions from reporters, Attorney General William P. Barr presented the special counsel’s report, 90 minutes before its public release, in the best possible light for the president: No conspiracy. No obstruction. A sincerely frustrated and angered president who had willingly cooperated with investigators. No intention on the part of Robert S. Mueller III to have Congress make the hard call on whether Mr. Trump might have broken the law. At one point, Mr. Barr quoted Mr. Mueller as telling him that the Justice Department’s longstanding opinion that a sitting president could not be indicted was not the reason he had not pursued an obstruction charge against Mr. Trump. But when the report was released, it showed that Mr. Mueller had very much considered the Justice Department’s position to be a complication if not an impediment to any charging decision. It was less a performance of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer than that of a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, citing selective facts to build a case for exoneration and sidestepping elements of the report less favorable to the president. It enraged Democrats, drew heated and substantive rebuttals, and validated the fears of Mr. Barr’s critics that he would bring his expansive view of presidential privilege to a norm-shattering presidency.”

Mark Landler and Katie Benner, “Barr’s Defense of Trump Rewards the President With the Attorney General He Wanted,” The New York Times online, April 18, 2019